1yola
I tend to learn things by trial and error, and by asking on this forum. Most of the time, I learn this way instead of reading manuals.
Anyway, I have been messing around with groove clipping, using a softsynth. (GC'ing the actual midi notes) Sometimes I get lucky and get it right and sometimes, I just don't get the exact measures copied right. For instance, if I'm trying to make a groove clip of a 1 bar phrase in 4/4 time, sometimes I get a space where the next repetition should come in. What am I doing wrong? What settings should I have in Snap properties?
I know this is not rocket science, but sometimes simple things elude me.
Can someone please explain, in easy terms, the correct procedure to get this right everytime?
Thanks for your time
Heh... I learn a little differently. I DO read the manual first (!), then experiment, then ask questions when stumped.
But, that being said .... yeah the infamous "groove clip miscalculation". It was one of the first things I learned years ago.
Here's the deal. Sonar (and most hosts) basically "guess" at the "length" of a clip if the clip ends before a boundary (such as measure). Sonar is pretty good at its guesses, but not always spot on.
So one way to avoid (or double check) you have the correct length is to right-click on the clip, go into Properties, and use the tab that allows you to enable looping -- but look at the "beats" value.
If you have a clip that is 2 measures but ends on the 7th beat, groove clipping it may not calculate (guess) right. So you need to change the value in the properties to "8" (beats). Then it will be 2 bars long and work out fine.
Also - you have to make use of the SNAP TO Grid. I use a setting of WHOLE as my default and change it only when need be. This lets you copy/move clips easily to whole note boundaries, which works great for clips that may not start on beat 1 of a measure, for instance, as well as work great for clips that do start on the downbeat of a measure.
Hope that helps.